Chicago - Family Weekend
 

Looking for ideas on things to do/see with our two sons...13 and 15. Their first trip to downtown Chicago. Looking to go Fathers Day weekend.

What are their interests?

If you are active, I took a bike tour with Bobby's Bike Hike, and that was a lot of fun.

Do they like baseball? Art? Natural History? Fish?

For activities and sights, check www.choosechicago.com, the city's official tourism site.

For events and restaurant listings: www.chicagoreader.com or www.chicagomag.com.

For transit info, www.transitchicago.com. It has schedules a trip planner and how to track buses and trains with your smart phone.

Have you reserved a hotel yet? The Food Marketing Institute meeting will bring around 12,000 people to the city June 8-11 and 40,000 will be coming for a commercial interior designer exhibit June 15-17. Some of those will likely add a couple days over the weekend and push hotel rates upward. Just a quick search on Orbitz and Expedia is showing hotels north of $275 per night.

Millenium Park
MCA
Bike or walk along Lake Shore Drive
Hancock Buiding - free view, pay for drinks
Lou Malnati's pizza (there's on just off Rush in Gold Coast) - the only true Chicago style, IMHO.
Architectural boat tour - starts just off Pioneer Square (Michigan Ave and Chicago River).
Navy Pier
Willis Tower Observation Deck
Billy Goat (only for die hard 70s SNL fans)
Catch a Cubs or Sox game. Just jump on the Red Line and a short train ride in either direction - Sox, get on South to 95th Street, exit at Sox/35th Street; Cubs North to Howard, off at Addison.

It's not DT, but our family would have been happy to spend three says in the Museum of Science and Industry.

In no particular order:
- a ballgame (if they're baseball fans, they'll want to see Wrigley whether the Cubs are in town or not);
- Sears Tower (they'll like the ledge);
- Museum of Science and Industry;
- Walk the Mag Mile;
- Grant Park (including the Bean, Buckingham Fountain and museum campus -- shedd aquarium, planetarium and Field Museum)
- Art Institute;
- Architecture boat tour (there's a speedboat tour from Navy Pier that goes slowly up the river and then full throttle the lake. The kids will like that).

two years ago we took a free tour with the City Greeters. You have to reserve ahead of time so they can arrange a volunteer. There might be something on the list that appeals to your sons. You choose the neighborhood you want to visit. I just checked the list and they offer tours that are oriented for children.
http://chicagogreeter.com/

I think it is a good educational experience to meet a volunteer like this.

Maggie Daley park is brand new and adjacent to Millennium park and the Bean. It has a climbing wall (that's really an understatement to call it that!) your boys might like.

http://maggiedaleypark.com/

Being that they are two teenage boys, then definitely two stops for sure- navy pier and pizza! At navy pier you can take a wild ride on the sea dogs which are yellow speed boats that sit people in rows and go really fast around the lake while listening to songs like " born to be wild". As far as pizza, well , not only are there many choices, but they are all going to be best as that deep dish. Chicago style with lots of gooey cheese and each piece is about a pound that you eat with a fork. Great choices are Lou malnati's or uno's.

There are a number of great museums, of course. However, my oldest (roughly between your kids' when we visited) was kind of tired of museums. He did, however, enjoy the Willis tower. Now there is a tilting wall at the hancock, that may interest them.

Don't know the age requirements, but I've done a segway tour that was kind of fun.

You won't go wrong on pizza. Gino's East has the added gimmick of being able to write on the walls.

Marlily51,
Sea dogs is the boat tour I was thinking of. For deep dish or stuffed pizza, the big four are Pizzeria Uno, Gino's East, Lou Malnati's and Giordano's. For Uno and Gino's, go to the original restaurants (Uno is on Rush, Gino's on Superior by Northwestern Memorial). Of course, if you want real pizza, go to New York.